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Special Advertising Feature: Quality business

The Association of MBAs has a distinguished record in helping to champion and professionalise business education.

by Des Dearlove and Steve Coomber, advertising feature

Published: 09 May 2007

Last Updated: 23 Jul 2013

This year, in Moscow, the Association of MBAs (AMBA) will hold its ninth annual conference - the theme is post-graduate management education and developing the business leader. Alongside the discussions about leadership, however, some celebrating is in order: 2007 is a special year for AMBA - it is the organisation's 40th anniversary. In the space of just four decades, AMBA has grown from a small club of business school graduates to a global champion of business education and an assurer of post-graduate business and management programme quality.

AMBA started life in June 1967, with Procol Harum's A Whiter Shade Of
Pale number one in the UK charts, the Summer of Love under way in San
Francisco and the Vietnam war raging in south-east Asia. A small group
of business graduates, eight with MBAs from the US and two from the
first intake at London Business School (LBS), gathered in London to
found the Business Graduates Association (BGA).

Although LBS and Manchester Business School were both founded in 1965,
there was little interest in the MBA in the UK in the late 1960s.
Initially, the BGA's intention was to promote the benefits of business
education through five objectives: help the development of existing
business schools; support the founding of new business schools;
encourage employers to take on MBAs; help increase the numbers and
quality of students attending business school; and advocate the
importance of a professional business education in general.

David Rose, with an MBA from LBS, became an active member of the BGA in
the mid-1970s. The UK economy was going through a tough period, he
recalls, with the oil crisis, rampant inflation and a three-day week.
"The idea of the MBA was still in its infancy in the UK," says Rose.
"Industry was struggling to accept that it should employ graduates, let
alone MBAs. I started looking after services to students, going to
universities, talking about business schools and why people should
go."

By the end of its first decade, the association had 1,900 members, but
the next decade saw a shift in strategy. Today, AMBA is perhaps best
known for its accreditation service (the other two main accreditation
providers are EQUIS and AACSB). Initially, however, the service was
developed more by chance than design, says Rose. The driver was a loan
scheme negotiated by the BGA with City Bank, which offered 3% loans to
MBA students from approved business schools. A standard bank loan was
anywhere between 12% and 15%. Unsurprisingly, many of the newer business
schools wanted their students to have access to the loans.

"About 1983, we began to get inquiries from the new business schools,"
says Rose. "The first were from the European School of Management
Studies at Oxford, and Middlesex, Leicester and Kingston Polytechnics."
Despite some initial reservations within the BGA about widening the pool
of approved schools, Rose drew up some simple approval criteria. It soon
became clear that there was a need for this quality assurance.

"You saw adverts in the Sunday business papers: 'MBA in two weeks -
please send £1,000'," he says. "So from 1986 to 1987, we began to
professionalise the process, with properly trained accreditation panels
and a director of accreditation."

As well as a change in strategy, the association received an image
makeover. Wolff Olins, the corporate identity specialists, was hired to
redesign the logo and the letterhead. In October 1987, the organisation
also had a new name, the Association of MBAs. Throughout the 1990s, AMBA
continued to add members and accredit more programmes, including many
outside the UK. The association, until then staffed by volunteers, also
adopted a more professional structure, appointing a full-time head and
management team.

Jeanette Purcell, the current chief executive, came on board in 2003,
following a period of upheaval in the business education market in the
aftermath of the dotcom boom and bust. "The MBA market was in a period
of uncertainty and there were concerns about whether AMBA had a sound
future by focusing on the MBA," says Purcell. "I took on the task of
establishing what the association needed to focus on, where its future
lay, what its priorities were; to make some tough decisions about what
it would and wouldn't do."

The strategic appraisal that ensued revealed that AMBA was seen as
independent and impartial. "In a complex and competitive environment,
where there is a range of vested interests, AMBA's position as a neutral
source of guidance, standards and information is very important," says
Purcell.

It was also clear that AMBA was recognised as a gatekeeper of quality.
"AMBA is best placed to be the source of authoritative information,
guidance and advice on an international basis on MBA issues and
throughout post-graduate business education," she says. "Our strategy is
all about establishing that authoritative position."

Purcell identifies a number of issues likely to impact on business
education over the next few years. One is globalisation: "Business
schools need to ensure that they provide a truly global business
education," she says. "They must produce business leaders who understand
what it is like to operate in a global market, who have knowledge of
different cultures, and can demonstrate the ability to work across
trans-national boundaries."

There is also the increased proliferation and internationalisation of
business education itself, and in particular the growth in India and
China. In this context, MBA's quality assurance services are essential.
"The AMBA kitemark is a sign of quality. In a market that is
increasingly competitive, it is important that the consumer is presented
with as much information as possible to aid them in making what can be a
life-changing decision," says Santiago Iniguez de Onzono, dean of
Instituto de Empresa business school in Madrid. "AMBA fulfils this
through its accreditation services, its public events and continuous
lobbying for the value of high-quality management education."

AMBA has already expanded its accreditation to include pre-experience
masters. Specialist masters could well be next. Although there are no
plans to include the executive education arena, Purcell does not rule it
out. "We are about developing business leaders and executive education
has a contribution to make," she says. "There is a favourable trend
towards executive education. A tailored programme fulfils a need among
employers for business education directly relevant to their
business."

The number of schools with accredited programmes has jumped from 80 to
126, and Purcell expects the expansion to continue but in a sensible
way. "Maintaining our uniqueness will be critical. The temptation will
always be for us to go for the mass market and accept graduates from
non-accredited programmes," she says. "That should be resisted. We must
continue to promote the value of the qualification, raise awareness
about the benefits that it brings to businesses and individuals, and
protect the qualification through monitoring and maintaining
standards."